Via WaPo:
The deal reached at this two-day E.U. summit marks a compromise for a continent splintered over the migration issue and may help to preserve the tenure of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been facing a rebellion over border security by members of her governing coalition that threatens her tenure.
“After intense discussion about this topic — which is perhaps the most challenging topic for the E.U. — it’s a good signal that we signed an agreement,” Merkel said. “Of course now there are a great number of tasks that remain.”
In a move to ease the burden on front-line states like Italy and Greece where most migrants arrive, the leaders also agreed that some European countries would establish centers within their own borders to process migrants seeking asylum who have arrived on the continent. Asylum seekers awarded the right to stay in Europe could be then resettled in other E.U. countries willing to host them.
One might be mistaken for seeing this as Australia showing the way to EU on immigration: external processing centres and shipping refugees away where possible. But that’s not my point. What the EU has done is more important than the details. It is the fact that it is has struck a “new deal” on immigration that unites Italian fascists with German progressives (though it is in doubt this morning). That shows an ideological compromise that Australia should emulate.
Why is this important? Because it de-radicalises the issue. In turn this keeps intact the humanist traditions that underpin notions of multi-culturalism and social progression. If we don’t tend to those foundations then they will crumble.
This is what Australia needs to emulate. We must break away from the “culture wars” in which the totalitarian Left has forced silence on reasonable views with labels like “racist”. Equally, we muts ignore the Western supremacist Right which has sought to sanitise all history of wrongdoing.
We need a new immigration compact free of interests. One that acknowledges both the contribution that it has made to Australian society while also protecting the liberal underpinnings that make that ‘melting pot’ possible in the first place.
The point is well made by conservative commentator Judith Sloan over the weekend:
The point is often made that, in the past, Australia not only coped with high rates of immigration but everyone also benefited. Apart from the past outcomes actually being more complex than this description, the reality is that the core features of our immigration program have changed dramatically through the years. In particular, there was little scope for temporary migration in the past: migrants came here and stayed put. There were very strong incentives for new migrants to integrate and to learn English. More temporary migrants than permanent arrive every year, although the stay of temporary migrants can be up to a decade. It should not surprise anyone that many instances of reported mistreatment in the labour market are connected with the temporary migration program.
On the other side of the debate we had bleeding heart Elizabeth Farrelly also making sense as her city is crush-loaded by Queen Lucy’s court of developer overlords:
A recent media release from the Greater Sydney Commission read like some stern Soviet-era edict. Headed “an important message from Chief Commissioner Lucy Turnbull AO” it announced the commission would no longer answer to the Planning Minister but, bypassing the Department of Planning entirely, answer directly to the Premier.
The commission, proclaimed the politburo, would now take “a central role in co-ordinating key growth areas across the city including the emerging Western Parkland City anchored by the new Airport and Badgerys Creek Aerotropolis, and creation of an economic powerhouse in the Central City’s Greater Parramatta and the Olympic Peninsula (GPOP) area….”
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There’s a Growth Infrastructure Compact, in case you’re worried Sydney is too picturesque. Oh, and if you’re unsure what to think about Sydney’s future, the commission will also be “providing thought leadership on key city-making issues”.
Aerotropolis? GPOP? Thought leadership? From a blow-in piece of state government apparatus led by the Prime Minister’s wife – are they serious?
The commission offers us an asphalted eight-lane highway of a future where those grim-faced peak-hour queues engulf night and weekend as well. But there is another way: cities that are inherently explorable, walkable, enjoyable; cities shaped by belief.
These two views must be brought together in a ‘new deal’ for Australian immigration. It is easy to do and the first polly that does it is going to win in a thumping landslide:
- stop the boats or not, but boost the refugee intake;
- halve the permanent migrant intake.
It’s that simple. Australia fulfills its responsibility to help the world’s persecuted while pressure comes off house prices, off wages, off infrastructure and off living standards. The new world and old can embrace.
Then we can all stop and admire a nation of all sorts built on strong liberal foundations that welcomes freedom loving people from everywhere to the greatest lifestyle on earth.
